Miserable but… Hopeful?
I know that my redeemer lives,
and that in the end he will stand on the earth.
And after my skin has been destroyed,
yet in my flesh I will see God;
I myself will see him
with my own eyes—I, and not another.
How my heart yearns within me!
- Job 19:25-27
Job is in a weird spot. Miserable, but…hopeful?
Prior to the text above Job is ranting and raving about how everyone he loves has left him and despises him. His friends are failing miserably at comforting him, and they’re running out of patience; Bildad said, “When will you end these speeches? Be sensible, and then we can talk (Job 18:2).” Classic Bildad, he always knows the right thing to say. He then goes on to suggest maybe Job deserves what he got? Another point in the what not to say column.
Not many of us will experience the depth of suffering that Job has. But we will experience some level of it. Exhibit A: 2020.
Where does Job’s hope come from? Not Bildad, that’s for sure.
Job’s hope is in his living redeemer. His hope is in resurrection; that when his flesh has been destroyed, he will see God in that same flesh with his own eyeballs.
It’s easy for us to hope that things will go back to normal, that this pandemic will be done soon. But were things actually really that great back when things were normal? There was still relational stress, national disunity, abuse, infertility, infidelity, addiction, [insert your own struggle here]. All of this is not going to go away with the end of the pandemic. Life might get better, but everything will not be right.
Job didn’t hope for all the things he lost to be returned to him. His hope was in something much more significant.
Unlike Job, we know Hope’s name. Jesus is the Living Redeemer, Jesus is the one who will, in the end, stand upon the earth. And we, after our skin has been destroyed, will be raised with him. We’ll look upon him with our fleshy eyeballs, and we will watch him make things right.
But in the meantime, taking a posture like Job’s might be appropriate. Allow yourself to mourn, to feel the pain of brokenness, to ask, “Why?”
But at the same time, don’t lose sight of your Hope.
~ AJ Hochhalter